Scrapbooking challenge :: 3 is a magic number
If you’ve been scrapbooking all weekend, it’s time for a little entertainment break, right? So I give you a little something from my childhood: Schoolhouse Rock. Something that essentially every American in a ten year age bracket (at the very least) knows by heart, and yet the Brits know just this one song and not the rest of the schoolhouse full of songs. Sigh. But it’s this:
And yes, three is a magic number, even in scrapbooking. It’s handy when you can repeat something on a layout three times, like a splash of colour in three points that creates a triangle or three daisies in a row. Three photos is the perfect medium between enough but not too much on a single page. But let’s be honest: there are a huge amount of supplies that just don’t give you three in one pack. Stickers rarely repeat on the same sheet, die-cut packs tend to have a variety or maybe just duplicates but not three of each. And so there’s another way that magical three can help – in groups of embellishments.
For this page, made with almost entirely Studio Calico supplies, the embellishment grouping to the right of the photos doesn’t repeat the same thing three times, but instead groups three single embellishments with something in common: three types of flower-shaped embellishments. One is a paper notions flower, another is a flower made by ruffling a FabRips strip then twisting it into a spiral, and the third is a resin flower attached to a punched circle and sticker. All different, but all flowers, and three of them together seems just right to me.
Here’s your challenge: Create a project (layout, card, etc) that includes a group of three in the embellishment. It can be three kinds of flowers like I used, but that’s not a requirement – you could use three squares, three butterflies, three things that are red, three apples, three hedgehogs… whatever group of three takes your fancy!
Many thanks to Studio Calico for sponsoring this challenge! You can find them on Facebook and Twitter, so don’t miss any updates!
One entry will be selected to win a prize pack of scrapbooking supplies from Studio Calico. Entries close at midnight next Sunday (21st August 2011).
Feel free to use the comment section to chat about this challenge, as the entries should go in the linky widget!
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14 August 2011, 08:44
Being from Norway this song is all new to me, but the magic of three is not at all new. Can’t wait to get home from work and start a few more scrapbook pages. Having fun creating this weekend. Thanks!
14 August 2011, 09:08
Love this!! Grew up with schoolhouse rock…my favorite is how a bill becomes a law! To funny that you included this today!!
14 August 2011, 09:16
The magic of “three” was drilled into my brain by my mother, who had it imprinted into hers by her mother, the interior decorator.
I seem to find myself breaking this rule from time to time. I wonder if it is the rebelious streak in me? None the less, it is an important design principle and I shall make sure that the page I do for this one follows it. :-D
14 August 2011, 09:26
love the song. great challenge again. I’m still working on the others. \but love this one. So no long post because there’s no time. But 3 will do it
14 August 2011, 09:41
Brilliant song and challenge. Love your LO and the flowers. I nearly did this challenge wrong, but realised just in time. Thank you xx
14 August 2011, 09:49
Can’t go wrong with three; although maybe if you use those hedgehogs. I always teared up when they played “Figure Eight” on Schoolhouse Rock. I just watched it again on youtube but didn’t cry this time!
14 August 2011, 10:02
Love this song and great challenge!
14 August 2011, 10:07
I love School House Rock! Too funny!! Thanks for the new challenge!
14 August 2011, 10:28
I’d heard the song before but never seen the video, very fun! I like it when the octopus gets his legs multiplied!
I use the magic of 3 quite a lot on my pages so I’ll enjoy this challenge like meeting an old friend! X
14 August 2011, 10:28
Another great layout and as I have 3 children 3 is a good number for me.
14 August 2011, 10:40
Use three a lot on my LOs but
may challenge myself to make these :) I can’t play the song on my phone at the moment but if it’s what I think it is it reminds me of when TV3 starts it’s morning run at 6am (Irish channel) it means it also makes me think I am on nights as to me it means only just over hour left to go lol
14 August 2011, 10:46
I find the “magic three” the essential scrap go to design principle. When I teach my elementary students, I’m always telling them that human brains just love the odd numbers- 3, 5, 7. Even in their writing I ask them to giver three events in their stories and 5 details in their paragraphs. Which gets me thinking – How about 3 journalling spots. I’ll give it a try.
14 August 2011, 11:09
3s look good together, and I use them often.
14 August 2011, 11:41
I think I learnt the lesson of 3 from yourself and often apply it to my pages- such a great tip thanks!
14 August 2011, 11:44
I’ve even scrapped with 3 photos – do I get extra brownie points? lol!
14 August 2011, 12:09
I’m curious as to why this School House Rock song is the one Brits know? I remember watching these growing up—they get stuck in your head so easily :) Thanks for the memory!
14 August 2011, 12:15
Used three metal buttons on mine – thanks for a simple one!
14 August 2011, 12:15
Great challenge! I have 3 boys, so I might go a little overboard with the 3 theme. Thanks for reminding me of Schoolhouse Rock. I’m making up a playlist of them for my kids to watch.
14 August 2011, 12:16
Another great layout!
I actually didn’t remember this SHR song! I remember several, but not this particular one – thanks for the fun! : }
14 August 2011, 12:17
Done :) I used 3 flowers, 3 brads and 3 pieces of yellow “Bommelband” I do not know what it is in english ;) Your layout is beautiful..!
Inga
14 August 2011, 12:22
I aim to use the visual triangle when scrapping. I think I learnt it in a Scrapbook Inspirations!
14 August 2011, 12:54
Love three’s. let’s go see what we can do….
14 August 2011, 13:07
Love the challenge!!! 3 IS the magic Number!
14 August 2011, 13:24
Thanks for the fun video! My oldest (age 5 1/2) came running over to the laptop when it started and stood next to me for the duration. Fun stuff! Like Marie said, three really IS a magic number! I used three groupings of three in my Stickery Challenge layout, but of course, a new challenge calls for a new layout!
14 August 2011, 13:26
Thought this would be easy, but I wanted to use some cute cloud-rubons and that made it a little bit difficult… But 3 is always a nice combination!
14 August 2011, 15:19
I may have gone overboard with my “3s” on my layout.
14 August 2011, 15:46
I’ve learned that working in 3’s and odd numbers is very pleasing to the eye, so this will be quite easy and make me think about that principle even more as I do this challenge.
14 August 2011, 15:57
I am going to enjoy this challenge…but what three things to choose? Maybe I’ll have to do several pages with this great concept. Thanks a million.
14 August 2011, 16:33
Im really enjoying these challenges…i took an easy option lol and used 3 flowers.
Kate x
14 August 2011, 17:03
I remember School House Rock, brings back lots of after school memories for me. And I am familiar with the concept of using things in threes on my layouts, maybe I can combine this with my go to technique since I do seem to do this a lot!
14 August 2011, 17:21
I do so love the number 3!! Had hoped to squeeze this is in today but unfortunately time got away from me and I have school looming tomorrow…however I shall do my very best to complete this during the week. I love a good challenge x3!!
14 August 2011, 17:32
You completely pointed out this design technique to me ~ and I love using the ‘triangle’ now in my layouts!! Thanks~ Jen
14 August 2011, 17:48
OK, anybody else got North American mega-fauna as their group of three yet?
14 August 2011, 18:01
Three banner stickers, wham, done lol! Thanks again, you and Adele on my iPod headphones are really helping me get my scrap on tonight ;) x
14 August 2011, 19:16
Finally got this challenge done! I combined a few challenges together for this one (the sketch and the 3 combo). Here I used a cluster of 3 butterflies and 3 banners.
14 August 2011, 19:51
Loving using 3 elements … used 3 BG brads for this one.
14 August 2011, 21:06
I dug into my stash and used some tags with vellum words. Another fun challenge. Thanks.
14 August 2011, 23:37
Many thanks for the “blast from the past”! Have the entire “album”! Ha! Fun challenge!
15 August 2011, 00:11
Love how this looked when I did it.
15 August 2011, 01:14
oooohhh, too many possibilities again. Thanks for challenging us with good design priciples!
15 August 2011, 04:04
added my link. this helped me finish off a layout that I had just stuck photos on and then stared at. thanks for another great challenge :)
15 August 2011, 08:03
I used 3 flowers on my LO but it took me literally hours to come up with that idea! The rest of the layout was much easier!
15 August 2011, 10:59
I used 3 butterflies and 3 flowers. Loved working with it.
15 August 2011, 12:25
Thanks for that great video, Shimelle. It’s been awhile since I’ve thought of that. This was an easy one for me and I used a package of chipboard stickers to create the “3” effect.
15 August 2011, 14:20
This challenge was a lot of fun. I enjoyed taking the time to really plan out where the ‘threes’ would go. And I love Schoolhouse Rock. LOVE.
15 August 2011, 15:54
Loved doing this one! Here I have used three 1” strips, three large buttons, three small buttons, three characters in the photo, three words in the title, three black bling dots on the journalling and three roses on the bling – I went overboard on threes!
16 August 2011, 00:28
loved this challenge so much! Again, thanks so much for hosting this awesome weekend/week!
16 August 2011, 03:54
Thanks for the challenge, I had fun again! (your pictures in that lo are just gorgeous!)
16 August 2011, 09:06
I love using the visual triangle so this was right up my street, thank you!
16 August 2011, 11:49
By complete coincidence I did this layout at a crop on Saturday and used 3 arrows as my embellishment – photo isnt great, but I love the story behind this one!
17 August 2011, 04:28
Didn’t know the song but it made a great title for the layout of photos of my three kids enjoying their holidays. Great challenge. Thanks
17 August 2011, 04:32
Started with three flowers and ended with three other embellishments by accident.
17 August 2011, 05:59
I used two groups of three, I guess it should have been three groups of three really.
17 August 2011, 06:42
I used three sets of the paper flower for my project ♥
17 August 2011, 12:27
I used three circles for this challenge.
17 August 2011, 13:01
I play that Schoolhouse Rock video for my 3rd graders! Great challenge. I did 3 photo clusters for my layout.
17 August 2011, 14:40
Loved this challenge! Thanks for pushing me!
17 August 2011, 18:15
I couldnt help it – this challenge grew on me, and my ‘half the page’ challenge also ended up fitting the ‘Threes’ theme – 3 photos, 3 flowers, 3 strips of paper!
18 August 2011, 05:45
OK, so I know this one has the scrapbookng connection but seriously? If not for that, can you honestly tell me it wouldn’t have been Conjunction Junction? Drat. Now I’ll be singing that all day…
:)
Mary Anne
18 August 2011, 06:53
Three flowers – with three layers of petals(twice), three leaves, three curls on my swirl, three lots of layering and the use of Mary Anne’s printables for the third time! I absolutely loved this challenge and was really pleased with the LO! Completely three-d out though!
18 August 2011, 08:13
thanks for another challenge Shimelle. I used 3 rik rak ribbons together and 3 buttons. xxxxx
18 August 2011, 14:01
I used 3 of the same stamp. I don’t usually stamp much so it was something a bit different for me.
18 August 2011, 14:47
I’m a little obsessive with grouping in threes! My entry has three gears in the top left corner, but it also has gold in three of the four corners to form the every present “triangle”!
18 August 2011, 15:08
i’ve posted my layout for this challenge Shimelle – thank you xx
18 August 2011, 17:17
I’ve really embraced the 3 theme in my layout everything on there is in threes even down to the fact that it is the third layout down on the page
19 August 2011, 12:47
I used 3 sets of 3, although that wasn’t planned! I have posted my Layout :-)
19 August 2011, 23:11
I ended up with two of these…The second lo was originally going to be for the use half a page challenge, but that didn’t work out for me…this is what I ended up with!
20 August 2011, 05:36
My layout is done, and i’ve just linked it above!! Thanx for this challenge which allowed me to scrap this beautiful polaroid of my little princess!!
20 August 2011, 07:02
I managed to finish off a layout I had previously started thanks to this challenge!
20 August 2011, 12:06
I love 3, i use three different type flower to finish my page….
20 August 2011, 15:11
Loved this challenge…perfect for a card.
20 August 2011, 15:23
Thanks for the challenge! I decided to go with a card. 3 image stamps, 3 rows of baker’s twine. Fun stuff! :)
20 August 2011, 15:30
Wow, what a great song! Didn’t know it at all (I’m from Germany living in the UK) – I’m off now doing my magic three! xxx
20 August 2011, 17:12
Had fun using three butterflies and three journalling spots and three types of journalling here
21 August 2011, 00:08
I posted my layout featuring three flowers.
21 August 2011, 02:59
A perfect challenge for me as I have 3 sons! So this page has 3 hearts, 3 flowers and 3 sons. Thanks for the challenge. x
21 August 2011, 10:45
I enjoy using the “3” concept – thanks for a great challenge.
21 August 2011, 10:50
for me it are the 3 wasp/ladybug.snails.
loved the movie.
21 August 2011, 14:37
Yay! I got to scrap some photos I thought would be really tricky. Great challenge (and I used the 4×6 photo love sketch too!). Thanks a million Shimelle!
21 August 2011, 15:21
loved this challenge, will be using more groups of 3 in the future xxx
21 August 2011, 15:31
LO under the name Little Nat! This was a good one – I enjoyed creating the groups of three! I used the February 4×6 Photo Love sketch as a starting point!
21 August 2011, 16:30
Difficult to translate my text, but the layout is in memorial of the sadest day in my country’s history. 22.07.11.
21 August 2011, 16:44
Enjoyed this challenge. Always look to put threes on my layouts, but was delighted to do it for a layout for my daughters third birthday :)
21 August 2011, 16:55
It is indeed making it easier to scrap when you have at least 3 points to follow. Thanks Shimelle for such an inspirational challenge.
21 August 2011, 17:00
3 is a magic number! Used 3 multiple times: 3 different sets of 3 buttons, 3 round embellishments, 3 journaling bits. Thanks so much!
21 August 2011, 17:27
Gotta love a challenge that has a school house rock video:)
21 August 2011, 17:34
I love groups of three! Scrapped a photo of Buckingham Palace in London :)X
21 August 2011, 18:00
3 is definitely the magic number here at the moment, although my son would tell you that 4 is soon to be the way to go!
21 August 2011, 18:44
Gotta love things in 3s, enjoyed this challenge :)
21 August 2011, 18:47
I loved this challenge. It’s 23:46 on Sunday night and I’ve only just finished it. Quite possibly one of my latest layouts ever. It was worth it though :-)
21 August 2011, 20:16
Fun challenge!
21 August 2011, 20:24
I used three doilies on my layout to ground my photos and embellishments. Great challenge!
22 August 2011, 00:04
I have 3 boys here so this was the perfect challenge for me!
20 June 2019, 08:48
Feel free to use the comment section to chat about this challenge, as the entries should go in the linky widget!
6 November 2019, 08:43
In the fate of falling like a star
Meet a person called you
In my stopped heart
Only one love shell shockers